Today's Learners

Title:	Today's Learners
Subject:	Professional Development
Grade:	Professional Development
Time Frame:	1 hour
Summary:	Participants will examine their past, their anecdotal evidence about today's learner, and articles (including current research). Then they will compare their experiences and opportunities with those of today's learner and consider how that affects their classroom.
Tasks:	You may want to complete the Technology Timeline activity before or as a part of this session. Who are we? In pairs of roughly similar age, list the technologies used by the teacher or yourself when you were a student (at school and at home) that are no longer used in the left side of the left circle of the Venn Diagram and those that are still used today in the overlapping part of the circles. Who are they? Overview - add links to statistics, studies, polls With your partner, label the right circle of the Venn diagram "Students" and list the technologies used by the students at school and at home that were not available when you were a student in the right side of the circle. Compare your diagram to this infographic on Kids of the Past Vs Kids of the Internet Are our students "digital natives"? How do they compare to those of a decade or two past? Divide into groups to read/discuss the following articles Teens 2012: Truth, Trends, and Myths About Teen Online Behavior Networked Learners (slides 16 & 20) Teens, Social Network Sites & Mobile Phones: What the research is telling us - COSN (slides 4, 6, 8, 18 - where are teachers?) Pew Internet: Teens (Data) Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project Read Prensky & read Koutropoulos Optional but highly informative - poll your students/school/district Comparison Which are no longer used? Why do you think so? Which tools did you use that are still used? Which tools are only available to today's students? Continuum? Disconnect? Implications? Though the terms are loaded and inaccurate, How can an immigrant "teach" a native?
Objectives:	Appreciation for the opportunities afforded to students by today's technologies and how they compare to their own era Understanding that those experiences will result in different students from yesteryear in some regards Nuanced understanding of what today's learners might be like and an open mind toward observing their students Appreciation for how the activities and technologies they choose and avoid will affect the students' opportunities to learn
Assessment:	How will you assess the teacher's learning? Please identify opportunities for differentiation.
Resources:	Venn Diagram (Blank) Beloit College Mindset List Digital Natives Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants - A New Way To Look At Ourselves and Our Kids - Marc Prensky Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part II: Do They REALLY Think Differently? — Neuroscience Says Yes - Marc Prensky Digital Natives: Ten Years After - Apostolos Koutropoulos (at least read the abstract and conclusion) Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn - John Seely Brown Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project Six Reasons to be Skeptical iDisorder - http://cdn.conversationsnetwork.org/ITC.TN-LarryRosen-2012.07.26.mp3 - Is this the place to debate or is this a more of an information gathering session? Tasks 5 &6 would point toward debate
Examples	N/A

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